The Church of England is once again calling for repentance. This time for "historic links to the slave trade and anti-racism training" according to a leaked report referred to in the Mail Online:
It claims that the Church of England will order a 30 per cent quota for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) candidates on its leadership programme and demand 'repentance' for historic links to the slave trade.
A Church of England taskforce was set up by the Church after the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he was 'sorry and ashamed' that 'we are still institutionally racist'. Only one of the 42 diocesan bishops come from BAME backgrounds.
Officials are also planning to provide information "giving context to church statues which may have caused 'pain or offence' as part of plans to tackle discrimination".
The Church of England has previously called for repentance over the role of Christians in 'centuries of antisemitism'.
And of course there was the call to the Church to 'repent' for its treatment of lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians after 'more than 100 senior Anglicans signed an open letter calling on the Church of England to do so.
There is unlikely to be a call to repentance for the treatment of 'traditionalist' Anglicans forced to keep the faith without pastoral and sacramental support.
Anglicanism has been ditched by the Church of England and other Anglican provinces such as the now irrelevant Church in Wales which continues to pump itself up by promoting same sex marriage as it accelerates the demise of Anglicanism in Wales.
We cannot undo the past, nor can we repent for actions of our predecessors however 'sorry and ashamed' later generations may feel.
As for removing statues, far better to use them as teaching aids to help get one's message across.
How would Welby feel if he were to be immortalised in stone only to find his likeness shattered by future generations who held him responsible for helping to destroy Anglicanism in favour of secularism.
Postscript [30.03.2021]
The BAME agenda
Disabled women of colour are encouraged to apply for the post of Dean of Hereford to exploit the Cathedral's treasures including the Magna Carta, Chained Library and Mappa Mundi in its mission.
I tried the reference http://ctjob.uk/JN9090 for more information but it did not work for me.
I am not in the running anyway!
The notion of a statue of Justin Welby being erected is risible AB.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Welby can call for repentance on how the CofE have treated Christians with traditional views. Apparently, there was a commitment to mutual flourishing....haha.
ReplyDeleteWhamab.
In our liturgy we are rightly called to repent our sins, not the sins of our fathers or the sins committed by earlier incarnations of an organization.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting point. I don't feel that I can "apologise" for the misdeeds of earlier generations, although I can - and should "regret" them and dissociate myself from them. Where things become more difficult is when the sins of the past still have ongoing repercussions today, whether that be in attitudes, economics or the culture of a particular institution. Then I think we can, and should, see what appropriate action we can take the remedy these.
DeleteSo when will the hue and cry begin for Italians to "apologise" for all the Crucifixions and slavery carried out by the Romans a couple of thousand years ago?
DeleteWhile we're at it let's demand every statue and monument of Roman emperors and senators be torn down and thrown into the Mediterranean.
Followed by calls for reparation and compensation to be paid by today's citizens of Rome.
DeleteNot forgetting demands (accompanied by rioting) from an anarchist Marxist movement that everyone must take a knee to confirm their wokeness and compliance with the cancelling liberalist 100+genders BBC and main stream media mind Police.
Delete"The end is nigh..." -- I would have thought that this particular End was in the past rather than the future. If traditional Anglicanism really is dead, then people who value Catholic order should stop clinging to its corpse and unite themselves to the Catholic mainstream (East or West? That is for the individual to decide). What killed it wasn't the political posturings of Abp Welby and his like as these don't affect its sacramental coherence, but the structural damage inflicted by the elevation of females to episcopal status, not to mention their earlier admission to the priesthood. I recognise the excellent pastoral ministry of many female clergy, but this is beside the point -- perhaps the Church brought this confusing state of affairs on itself by refusing to value lay ministry. How can "Anglo-Catholics" continue to belong to a body whose sacraments are now at best of doubtful validity, and becoming more doubtful with every supposed ordination at the hands of a female bishop? And if in celebrating the Eucharist the priest functions as the extended hands of his Bishop, how can "traditionalist" clergy in the three Welsh dioceses presided over by female bishops continue to do so, when every traditional Catholic liturgy includes prayer for the Bishop by name? I really would like to know.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matthew
DeleteIt may well be that Anglo-Catholicism, on one side of the Tiber,has come to 'sell-by' time - or already passed it!
Whatever was the case when,just over 175 years ago,S.John Henry Newman had crossed the Tiber, the Anglican landscape overall has altered.
In broad brushstrokes,Anglican Christianity seems to be polarising into AFFCATH i.e. 'Affirming Catholicism'(sic)- with a rather limited shelf life! -on one hand; and the largely Evangelical Global South, together with Sydney(Australia),on the other.
Whatever individuals might decide,as to removing to different part of the vineyard,may such decision be informed by prayerful discernment.
Richard
'"The end is nigh..." -- I would have thought that this particular End was in the past rather than the future. If traditional Anglicanism really is dead, then people who value Catholic order should stop clinging to its corpse ...'
DeleteI think that sums it up, Matthew; that was precisely the conclusion which I too reached over a quarter of a century ago. And in the remainder of your post you concisely set out some of the exact reasons why I came to that conclusion.
Ditto.
Delete